Tried & True

by Charlie Cochet

  Sloane stood with a chuckle. He held a hand out to Ash and helped him up. They climbed out of the ring and grabbed a couple of towels from the shelf. Sloane looked around at the new equipment, unused, pristine. Everything was stocked. Soon it would be full of life. It would also be full of pain, loss, and desperation. Taking a seat on the bench, Sloane looked up at Ash.

  “Do you think Sparks made you Team Leader just because you said so? She made you Team Leader because she knows you’re ready, Ash. You’ve been ready for some time. You’re also not alone in this. You have Cael, me, Dex, the rest of our family to back you up. I know Dex and I won’t always be here, but that’s okay. I’m marrying your boyfriend’s brother, for crying out loud. There’s still going to be date nights and movie nights, dinner at Tony’s. Plus you’ll be plenty busy now that Cael’s moving in.”

  Ash nodded and shoved his hands into his pockets before deciding to take a seat next to Sloane. The mix of concern, uncertainty, and fear in his best friend’s amber eyes squeezed at Sloane’s heart. Something was really bothering Ash, and it wasn’t just Sloane working for TIN.

  “What is it?”

  “I received my new security clearance last week, giving me access to the list of teams who are being considered for our training program. I started looking through them, and it scared the shit out of me.” Ash shook his head, and he let out a heavy sigh. “You have no idea, Sloane. Some of the fucked-up shit that’s happened to these guys…. No wonder their teams are broken. I’m not just talking about a loss within their team, a difficult case, or any of the messed-up stuff that we encounter out there. There are things that have happened to some of these agents that no one should have to go through.” Ash ran a hand over his face. “How am I supposed to get through to a Team Leader who watched his entire team get blown up right in front of him?” Tears welled in Ash’s eyes. “How do I help the agent whose partner was kidnapped, raped, and shot in the head, right in front of her?” Ash shook his head as he tried to keep it together. “We’ve dealt with a lot of shit, but nothing compared to what some of these agents have been through. Why would Sparks think I’m the right guy for this job? And what if we lose the Sarge? Jesus, Sloane, we’re going to end up on the same list, just as broken as the rest of these teams.”

  Sloane stood and took hold of Ash’s face, forcing him to meet his gaze. “First of all, we’re not going to lose the Sarge. Second, we sure as hell are not going to end up broken. We’re a family, Ash. Whatever happens, we’re going to be there for one another and get through it together. As for the other agents, no one says you have to hold anyone’s hand. Sparks knows you, knows how you handle things. Maybe your in-your-face, no-nonsense approach is what some of these agents need. If a softer touch is needed, you have Cael. If you need a gentle hand, you have Hobbs. Or if an ass-kicking is what someone needs, you have Letty. Rosa can patch them up afterwards and feed them.”

  “If I want someone sniped, I have Cal,” Ash said, blinking back his tears. His wobbly smile and the mischief in his eyes made Sloane laugh.

  “Exactly.” Sloane released him. “My point is, you’re not alone. You’re going to do great. I’m proud of you too. This is your chance to do for these agents what you did for me. You taught me that no matter how bad things get, that if I kept fighting, if I trusted in you, that we would make it through and things would get better. You never lied or gave me false hopes. You taught me there are no easy answers in life, no shortcuts. Because of you, I learned the real meaning of strength, loyalty, and family.”

  Ash wrinkled his nose, tears welling in his eyes again. “Asshole.”

  With a dopey grin, Sloane brought Ash into a hug, and Ash returned his embrace. Sloane was going to miss having Ash at his side like nothing else. As if reading his thoughts, Ash spoke up, his voice rough with emotion.

  “Remember your promise. If you need backup, you fucking call me.”

  Sloane squeezed Ash tight. “I promise.”

  A round of applause startled them, and Sloane turned to find their family.

  “Yeah, yeah,” Ash growled, wiping a tear from his eye. “Nothing to see here. Drop and give me twenty burpees.”

  Calvin laughed, and when Ash joined in the laughter, the rest of the crew weren’t far behind. Sloane knew better. Ash’s humor vanished, and his expression turned hard.

  “I’m not fucking kidding.”

  “What?” Letty groaned.

  They all dropped and got started, with only Cael standing there.

  “You too, sweetheart. No favoritism.”

  Cael narrowed his eyes. “Are you saying Sloane never showed Dex favoritism?”

  Sloane shook his head. “Not where training was concerned. In fact, you know better than anyone that I was harder on him than the rest of you.”

  Cael huffed. “Fine.” He joined everyone else, grumbling as they followed orders.

  “When you’re done here, I’ll see you guys in the conference room,” Sloane said, waving at them as Ash walked with him out of the training bay. Ash grinned wide and threw an arm around Sloane’s shoulders.

  “You know, I think I’m gonna enjoy this whole Team Leader thing.”

  Heaven help them.

  Sloane’s phone went off. It was a text from Sparks. Dr. Winters was ready for him. “I gotta go see the doc.”

  “Good luck.” Ash gave his shoulder a pat. “I’ll let you know if we hear anything from Austen.”

  “Thanks.”

  SLOANE LEFT Ash and headed back upstairs to Dr. Winters’s office. As soon as he’d walked into the waiting room, the door to Dr. Winters’s office opened, and Dex walked out. Butterflies fluttered in Sloane’s stomach at the sight of Dex’s beautiful smile. He loved that Dex still caused that reaction in him. Sloane returned Dex’s smile and waited as Dex made his way over. He laid a hand on Sloane’s upper arm, squeezing subtly.

  “Try not to give away too many of my secrets,” Dex teased, winking at Sloane before he walked off. Sloane shook his head in amusement. He joined Dr. Winters, greeting him as he walked through the door.

  Winters closed the door with a smile. “Sloane. Thank you for seeing me. As I told Dex, I know this is a most inopportune time, but circumstances dictate we make sure you and your team have the support you need.”

  “Thank you, Doctor.” Sloane took a seat on the couch, picking up Dex’s scent on the throw pillow beside him. He took it and placed it on his lap.

  Winters smiled warmly at him. “I’m happy to see he brings you comfort.”

  Sloane tilted his head in question, and Winters motioned to the pillow. “His scent is on that pillow. I imagine it’s why you picked it up.”

  “Oh, um, yeah,” Sloane replied with a sheepish grin.

  “You’ve both brought a sense of calm to each other. Well, I would say you bring him calmness, and he lifts your spirits. There’s a lightheartedness to your soul you didn’t have when he first joined.”

  Sloane nodded his agreement. “I wasn’t in a good place, but you know that.”

  Winters’s gaze was sympathetic. “I do. It was a very difficult road for you, but you’ve come such a long way, opening yourself up to the healing process. You stopped believing you were incapable of finding happiness again. I’m very proud of the progress you’ve made, Sloane.”

  “Thank you.” Sloane swallowed hard. It had been a difficult road, and there had been times when he’d stumbled. When everything looked bleak, and he was surrounded by pain. Dex had been his guiding light, helping him steer through the darkness to safe shores.

  “How are you handling the current situation? Sergeant Maddock has been a father figure to you since you joined the THIRDS, and he’s your fiancé’s father.”

  Sloane let out a heavy sigh. “It’s difficult, but I’m doing the best I can for my team, and for Dex.” Just like Ash was doing his best for Cael. Between Dex and Ash, they didn’t allow Cael to get swept up in his anxiety, and Ash had managed to prevent Cael from having a bad panic attack like h
e’d had when Tony had been shot. “It’s been stressful for all of us, with all the changes, the wedding, and trying to bring Tony back home safe.”

  “And how are you juggling your role as Team Leader, future Training Officer, and soon-to-be husband?”

  “Right now, my focus is on doing everything I can to support my team and find our sergeant. Dex and I have had some time to get used to our dual roles over the years. Sure, this time it’s more of a challenge because I want to be there for him emotionally, but we both have a job to do, and we acknowledge that.”

  “I’m glad to hear it. You seem to be handling the situation well.”

  Sloane shrugged. “I have to. That’s my job as Team Leader. To be the touchstone for everyone on my team.”

  “Lead by example,” Winters said, nodding.

  “Yes. My team looks to me to keep it together. To keep them going no matter what. I have to be confident in what I say and what I do.”

  “And if the worst comes to pass?” Winters asked gently. “If you’re wrong. What do you think will happen to your team? To Dex? You’ve assured them they can bring Sergeant Maddock home. Should you be making those kinds of promises? What if you can’t deliver?”

  Sloane thought about that. It would tear them apart, but… Sloane wouldn’t let them fall. He’d been in this position before. He knew grief intimately. Suffering was an old friend. One Sloane had turned his back on some time ago. He knew the path to darkness like the back of his hand. There was no way in hell he would let Dex or the rest of his family end up there. Sloane met Winters’s eyes.

  “They’re strong. Whatever happens, we’ll get through it. Together.”

  Winters opened his mouth to reply, but Sloane’s phone went off. “I’m so sorry, Doctor. I need to take this.”

  “Of course. Good news I hope.”

  “Fingers crossed,” Sloane said, getting up. “I need to go. Thank you for everything.”

  “I’ll see you soon,” Winters said.

  SLOANE LEFT the office and hurried out into the hall, his phone to his ear. “Talk to me, Austen.”

  “I have the list of ingredients from the formula. As I suspected, it’s a homemade concoction created by a professional cleaner. I’ve got good news and bad news.”

  “What’s the bad news?”

  “The bad news is that they’re all common elements that when bought individually wouldn’t raise any red flags. I did a cross-reference across the three states, and as suspected, there’s no one place where all these ingredients were purchased.”

  “And the good news?”

  “The sale of these particular ingredients is higher in Jersey than in New York City. So if you’re going to start somewhere, start there. It’s very possible the cleaner is either located in Jersey, or he’s making the stuff there and bringing it over.”

  “Thanks, Austen.”

  “I’ll call you if I find out anything else.”

  “Okay, well, we got somewhere to start.”

  Sloane quickly sent Ash a text, and they met in the one conference room Sparks had set up for them. The only one that was secure at the moment. His team was in there waiting for him.

  “Jersey,” Sloane said, before relaying the information he’d gotten from Austen. “You got the information I asked for?”

  “You know how many abandoned places there are in New Jersey?” Ash asked, shaking his head and handing over the lists his team had compiled. It was lengthy. “They got almost as many as we do.”

  Sloane took a look at the printouts. Shit. Even with all their units and those in other states helping, there were way more on the list than they could get to in time.

  “Maybe Sparks can get THIRDS HQ in Princeton to accept some of our units over there to help,” Letty suggested. “Put a task force together.”

  Ash let out a snort. “Come on, Letty. You know how fucking long that shit takes, and then it turns into a pissing contest, and we don’t got time for that shit.”

  As his team discussed possible ways to expedite the search across multiple locations in the short amount of time they had, Sloane joined Dex and Cael in reviewing the recording of the Chairman’s conversation. He watched Dex pace as Tony’s voice filled the room. After the recording ended, Dex replayed the part with Tony as he and Cael both frowned. Finally, Cael spoke up.

  “I keep thinking about what Dad said about Vegas.”

  “What about it,” Dex said, folding his arms over his chest as he started to pace again.

  Cael faced his brother. “Dad hates Vegas. Like hates it with a fiery passion. He would never volunteer to go there, not even to celebrate.”

  Sloane went pensive. “Wasn’t Vegas where Tony had to go bail you out of jail?” he asked Dex.

  “There’s that too,” Cael said. “Dex was arrested in Vegas. He’s banned from, like, half the casinos there. Why would Dad suggest going there?”

  Dex’s eyes widened. “Holy shit.”

  “What?” Sloane asked, straightening.

  “Fuck me, I’m such an asshole. He was trying to tell us something.” Dex walked over to Sloane and grabbed the printout with all the abandoned places. He held it up. “He was trying to give us a clue without the Makhai figuring out that’s what he was doing. If they look up my record, or arrest records in Vegas, they’d find nothing, because thanks to Dad pulling in a favor, my arrest was never made official. They’d have no idea why he said that except that maybe he wanted to celebrate with his sons. We know I was in jail.”

  “Jail. Abandoned locations.” Sloane cursed under his breath. He grabbed the sheet from Dex and scanned for what he was looking for as Dex confirmed his thoughts.

  “He’s in a fucking prison.”

  “Here,” Sloane said, pointing to one particular location on the list. “There’s an old abandoned jail in Newark.”

  Cael leaned in, then tapped away at his phone. “This place has been closed since the seventies and is notorious for feral Therians, dealers, and illegal activity. The city plans to demolish it. It’s decayed, rusty, and falling apart, but there’re any number of places where you could hide someone.”

  Sloane removed his cell phone from his pocket and put in a call to Austen, who answered on the first ring.

  “Hey, Sloane. You got something for me?”

  “Yeah, I need someone to check out the Old Essex County Jail over in Newark. I’ll be waiting to hear back from you. I’m thinking this is it, and if it is, we need to mobilize right away.”

  “I’m not far from there. I’ll call you soon as I have something.”

  “Be careful.”

  “Will do.”

  Austen hung up, and Sloane headed for the door of the conference room, everyone following close behind. “While Austen confirms visuals, we need to inform Sparks and put together a plan of attack.”

  “Hope everyone’s had their tetanus shot,” Ash said. “Might I also suggest we go in with full armor. This place is going to be one giant landfill of rusted metal and used drug paraphernalia. Oh, and mercenaries shooting at us.”

  Sparks’s door was open, but Sloane knocked anyway, just in case. She looked up from her desk and motioned for them to come in. She placed the room in privacy mode and laced her fingers on her desk’s surface.

  “I was about to call you. Tell me you have something, because I’ve run out of time. I had my last interview of the day, and the Chairman just made contact. He wants me over at the closest TIN facility getting this USB plugged in.”

  “We think the sergeant’s in Jersey. I’m just waiting on confirmation. If we’re right, we’re going to need backup. A lot of it.”

  Sparks nodded. “Take Theta Destructive and Beta Ambush to backup your team. From there, get whoever else you need. Call in every team we have out there in the city. I’ll deal with Princeton HQ and anyone else who wants to waste our time with paperwork bullshit. If there’s an agent on this floor, I want them out there bringing Maddock back.” Her eyes were filled with a fury Sloane had neve
r seen before. “They want a war, we’ll give them one. Consider the Makhai’s men armed and dangerous. Take them down.”

  “What are you going to do about the USB?” Dex asked. “Whatever’s on there can’t be good.”

  Sparks stood and smoothed out her pantsuit jacket. “Whatever the Makhai want, I have no intention of giving it to them, but they won’t know until it’s too late. I have someone who’s going to make sure whatever is supposed to happen, doesn’t happen. You know what that means.”

  Sloane nodded. He turned to face his team, his eyes falling on Dex. “If we don’t get Tony back by the time the Makhai figure out Sparks has screwed them….”

  “Then Tony’s dead,” Dex said, balling his hands into fists at his sides.

  Sloane’s phone rang, and his heart leaped into his throat. “Austen?”

  “Get your ass moving, Brodie. They’re in there, and from the looks of it, they won’t be for long. I can’t confirm visuals on Daddy Maddock, but there’s a fuckton of firepower around, and it ain’t because of the scenery.”

  “Shit. Thanks, Austen.”

  Dex looked at him expectantly.

  “Austen confirms the Makhai’s men are at the prison. We’re looking at a lot of firepower. Everyone full tactical gear and armor. We’re going in hot.” Sloane turned back to Sparks. “We’ll send you a text the second we have Tony secured.”

  Sparks nodded, and Sloane hurried out into the bull pen to put together an army of his own.

  CHAPTER 11

  HE HAD no words.

  Dex couldn’t bring himself to open his mouth, much less attempt to speak. When Sloane put out the call to arms in Unit Alpha, the speed at which their fellow agents volunteered and got geared up left Dex speechless. Their unit had ten squads. A total of five had been available to mobilize, and of those five, not one had remained seated when Sloane asked that anyone willing to help them march into battle to retrieve Sergeant Maddock stand. Dex had never seen anything like it. Not that he’d expected any less from his fellow agents, but it still struck something deep inside him. At the HPF, he’d thought he’d been a part of a brotherhood. One that would have his back and fight along with him for what was right, but in the end, they’d turned on him. Cast him out for doing what he’d sworn to do when he picked up his badge. They hadn’t even given him a chance. By contrast, everyone in his unit was there because they believed in what they were doing. They believed in fighting for a better world.